Monday 28 June 2010

Borrowed Beams Of Light - S/T EP 2009


Okay, so I know the tracks are available freely on their last.fm but I'm posting them here in a collected .zip anyway. Borrowed Beams of Light are a pretty tight band from Virginia USA or some place that way. They may only have 382 listeners (at the time of writing this) but trust me, they are going to be the next big thing for sure. So yeah, check these hip cool cats out.

Sunday 27 June 2010

Black Moth Super Rainbow - Falling Through a Field [2003]


Black Moth Super Rainbow are an odd group of souls. They have silly names and up until their 2009 album Eating Us recorded music in some field in Pittsburgh or something. This Album, their debut under the moniker Black Moth Super Rainbow is in my opinion probably their best work. Their music is somewhat experimental with psychedellic pop influences coming through. The vocals are all done on vocoders but I think it kind of adds to the sound. Anyway Check 'em out.

Thursday 24 June 2010

Girls - Albun [2009]


[Lo-fi/garage-rock]

Girls frontman Christopher Owens grew up in the Children of God cult. His older brother died as a baby because the cult didn't believe in medical attention. His dad left. He and his mother lived around the world, and the cult sometimes forced his mother to prostitute herself. As a teenager, Owens fled and lived as a Texas gutter-punk for a while. Then a local millionaire took Owens under his wing, and Owens moved to San Francisco. There, he and Chet "JR" White formed Girls, and recorded Album, their debut album, under the influence of just about every kind of pill they could find.

Tuesday 22 June 2010

Projekt A-ko - Yoyodyne [2009]

Yoyodyne
[Post-punk/lo-fi/Shoegaze]

Projekt A-Ko are a Scottish band that formed out of the ashes of 90's post-punk Lo-fi band Urusei Yatsura (The most astute of you will have realised both bands have titles of animes but don't let that put you off), a band who I enjoyed a lot. Well, Projekt A-Ko overtook them as my new favourite Scottish band and this is their only release to date, although they are working on something new. This is lo-fi/post-punk at it's finest. I hope you enjoy it as much as myself.

Tuesday 15 June 2010

Top albums of the year (so far)

So the first half of the year is coming to a close and we've had a good one for music, don't ya think. Well, I do. Any I decided to compile my top 11 best albums so far, why 11... well, 10 just isn't enough. I've had trouble making this list because I've had so many good releases, but here it is anyway.


Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles (II)
[Electronica, New-rave, 8-bit]

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach
[Alternative-indie/hip-hop]
   
Male Bondage - Nothing Hurts
[Lo-Fi indie-rock]

The National - High Violet
[Indie-rock]

The Drums - The Drums
[Indie/Surf-pop]

Surfer Blood - Astro Coast
[Surf-rock/Indie-Rock]

Sleigh Bells - Treats
[Lo-fi, noise-pop]

Beach House - Teen Dream
[Indie-pop/Dreampop]

Sunday 13 June 2010

Best Coast!

Apparently lo-fi noise-pop is dead, well, I don't care. I like it, and Best Coast are simply the fucking bomb. It makes Cali not suck as much, although let it be said, I still don't like California.
Anyway, this post has every release by Best Coast that I have, so if you have any others post a link in the comments.
Demo [2009]
California Girls (DemoII)
Make You Mine 7" [2009]

Thursday 10 June 2010

Lo-Fi High-Five megapost... does a trio count as mega?

[Post-Nothing, No singles and Art Czarz in one RAR]
First, off apologies for the following being hosted on 4shared, I get a bigger file size upload over there. This post will consist of lo-fi Garage Rock bands as opposed to lo-fi noise, which will be my next post FYI.
This Japandroids link is for their 12" records No Singles (collection of two out of print EP's) and Post-Nothing (Their debut LP, and best release to date). It also has the Art Czarz MP3 from the 7". When I get the Younger Us 7" I'll post that too. Till then enjoy, Japandroids are a band I really, really enjoy, and you should too.
[Nouns, Weirdo Rippers and Sick People are Safe]

NO AGE - Nouns came third in Pitchforks 2008 top 50 so if you're smart, you probably own it, in which case I'm sorry for making you download it again, but this .rar also includes their first 12" Weirdo Rippers, and the fun 7" EP Sick People are Safe. So if you like your lo-fi grainy and a little on the 'noise' side, get it here.
[Monitor and The Airing of Grievences]
Last.Fm says they are lo-fi, I guess they kind of are, but they're good so I'll post them anyway. The above post contains both their Full Lengths. They seem like they are the missing link between Fugazi and 90's emo like Sunny Day Real Estate, but with fuzz. The monitor is a some what conceptual album based around the American Civil War, you know, the one with Abe.

Monday 7 June 2010

Hipster Garbage


[I luuuv u Jesus Chriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiist]

You know Neutral Milk Hotel, I know Neutral Milk Hotel, everyone knows Neutral Milk Hotel, so really there is no point in introducing Jeff Magnum's masterpiece. Everyone has a copy of In The Aeroplane Over The Sea, even if they don't want to admit it. But very few have his first album and even less have the demos he recorded under the moniker Milk. That is where I come in. The above link is to his Demos recoreded from 93-95 and the link below... yeah, On Avery Island.

Saturday 5 June 2010

1990's Britain

[Get it here]

Sleeper are one of the best things of the 90's. Lead by Louise Wener, now a novelist, sleeper had that distinctive sound that kept them from falling into the generic sound a lot of brittish pop musicians were falling into. This album was possibly the best one they released although it does have some flaws it's worth getting and listening to. Also just to hit home how good they were, ELVIS MOTHERFUCKING COSTELLO coverd one of their songs.


I posted this elsewhere already, but it's worth posting again, here. Spitfire were a band who hada forever changing line up despite only ever releasing two albums. They had members who would later go on to be in bands like Elastica and The Auteurs. This was their first Full Length, so yeah, enjoy.

Betty Brant


I use to work in let's just say the charity business, while doing a stint there I met a talented musician named Paul. Paul made music, and it was really good. Some of that music was in Betty Brant a no-fi indie band who made no-fi twingy pop cool again.

Also check out his other project Major Major which was more Bloody Valentineesque and even more awesome. Sadly I don't have any downloads for them.

Xiu Xiu


[Shew Shew]

One of my favourite bands and one of my favourite albums. The Air Force usually makes my top 10 album list everytime I'm drunk enough to get into the conversation about what my top 10 albums are.
Xiu Xiu can be considered Art-rock in the sense that they don't 'conform' to any structure/sound that would be consired the 'norm' of other genres
Jamie Stewarts soft vocals make this album for me, the lyrics while being mostly about love and death come off as beautiful, but they also merge well with the flow of the album. The main seller here though is the use of instrumentation. Ranging from 'beeps and boops' to keyboards, guitar and drums (and drum machines) this album mixes it all and manages to do it without it just coming off as plain noise and mess like some bands try to call 'art'.


[I won't rest until you take it]

The first time I heard Xiu Xiu I was 17 years old in avalanche in Edinburgh when the song I Luv The Valley came on. I heard this song and instantly I was in love. I asked the guy working who was the band was and he told me it was Xiu Xiu and pointed me in the direction of the album. I happily picked it up for a mere £6 and well, that was when my love affair with James Stewart and Xiu Xiu began. It was also my first real connection with Experimental Rock. I had Sonic Youth CDs and I really enjoyed them, but I hadn't taken them in for their serious artistic merit, I just liked them being loud. Xiu Xiu really introduced me into understanding experimental music and I've been hooked since.